Randomness

If Ray Charles taught us that Genius + Soul = Jazz, then does

Person - Soul = Dick Cheney?

Listening to: Funk Inc's cover of 'Gimme Your Love'

Musing over: for a guy wearing red underpants over his strides, Superman would be too busy using his x-ray vision to clock the guys of Frisco to save anybody.

Sometimes...

...I wish I had a camera mounted on my dashboard. As I entered Reading, I found myself following a car with a trailer. On it was the 'pick & mix float' - a milk float to sell pick n mix sweets I presume. It then occurred to me that the Reading Festival starts this weekend....

Jellybeans n 'mphetamines -
served up by a retro
Mister Whippy,

help keep you
mean on the scene -
while all around scream,

(and he pockets your money).

Hmm, that's a bit shit, isn't it?

AE Housman

My last exam is on Thursday the 3rd; I should be revising, but the urge to write grows stronger within me. Good timing methinks, as my next long-haul business trip won't be until October.

This evening my gaze fell onto a second-hand copy of AE Housman's 'More Poems' from 1936. I purchased it in Brighton back in late 2004/early 2005. It contains an inscription to 'Jimmy' from 'John', dated June 1956.

John drew Jim's attention to this poem. But at the end of the book, John had written another Housman poem:


'He would not stay for me, and who can wonder'

He would not stay for me, and who can wonder?
He would not stay for me to stand and gaze.
I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder,
And went with half my life about my ways.


I have always been fascinated by the journey a book can take (something that first struck me when reading Gabo's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'). But the fact that I found this book in a distressed state, with the memory of Jimmy and John writ large between its covers, makes me very sad.

'Rich Man, Poor Man' on BBC4

I can't comment on Madejski, but I didn't recognise the town. The visuals were very selective. Not sure about the assertion that he is the only famous Reading person - what about Kenneth Branagh, Kate Winslet, Ricky Gervais and Mike Oldfield?

Mind you, Patrick Robinson came across as a right arse.

The (former) USSR Metro System

Simply quite beautiful - take a look.

And not forgetting...alternative subway maps.

When Andy & Jan met the Cistern Kid & the iPod Perv...

Sweeney & Todd's in Reading. Many pies were consumed in the making of this snapshot moment.

Chookz as Ming the Merciless

Although I told him he looked like a packet of Opal Fruits (Starburst to you younger folk), the shirt did suit him.

HBS - Home of Business Stars?

More like the home of silly asses. Spent last weekend revising for the final exam with TiTTam (yes, me and Sasee are honorary 'tits'). Teresa gave me some teeny boppers for my birthday; I thought i'd road test them with the team.

It's scary how they don't look out of place.

No, there isn't a photo of me wearing it.

Vanity Publishing

I spy, with my little eye, a book for vain marketing people.

Dear oh dear. Best put it back on the shelf and move back to my own office.